Why it is important to read things out loud

WittyandorIronic · Oct 14, 2007

So...today I learned several important lessons.
1) Don't pull on a thread unless you are prepared for things to unravel.
2) Read things out loud.
I found a tiny little fact problem in my regency romance novel, concerning addressing a title. When I went to double check my titles...I discovered I have addressed EVERYBODY wrong in the entire fricking book. As it is only 3 chapters long so far, I though, "Okay, annoying, but fixable. I mean, I have a 10 page outline so this crap doesn't happen, but whatever."
While triple checking, just to be sure, I figured out that my male MC is also going to have to have the SAME last name as the female (his love interest) MC. WTF?? I mean, I know they used to marry their cousins and all, and he is distant, but it's still creepy. And I created a family tree for 4 generations, you think I would have figured this out before now.
Being a resourceful writer, I remembered that if his former title is inherited from his mother and by writ I can address him as his formal title, and not bother with his surname too much to become weird.
YAY!! Problem fixed!
So my loving husband comes in and asks how things are going (he heard me screaming), and as I am explaining he starts laughing so hard he nearly cries. Why? Because I called my male MC by his title and name. See....on paper it was a very dashing and impressive name. Baron Damien Ware. Looks great, huh? Out loud?? Try it. Say it out loud. Say BARON WARE. O-M-F-G. You have to be kidding me.
Bare-and-wear? Shoot me now. Bareing Damiens Wares??? How could I have been so dumb?
Phew...and now back to CTRL H'ing my story.
Just needed to vent.

benbradley · Oct 14, 2007

Want to really amuse your hubby... just say these two sentences loud enough for him to hear (may not be appropriate for young children to hear):

I yam we tar did.
I yam sofa king we tar did.

Surely there's some word for this sort of thing (seemingly random words that when said together sound like other words) but I can't recall it if it exists. As another example (this one G rated, suitable for immature people of all ages!), there's this seasonal greeting made up almost exclusively of animal names:

Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose panda hippo gnu deer.

WittyandorIronic · Oct 14, 2007

So I head already seen the first one, and played it on my mother a few times. (lol, gotta love the ditz)
But I TOTALLY missed you're "seasonal greeting" comment and could not fathom what in the world "panda hippo" was even remotely supposed to sound like.
LoL...guess that lovable Ditz passed some on to me. Got it now...i'm a dork.
As for names go, I keep coming up with new ones and discarding them...lol. I just can't say Baron as anything other than "Bare and" now.
So..
Baron Keane becomes Bare and Keen...great. Now I am naked and eager.
Baron Steele...absolutely not.
Baron Sharp. A little frightening.
ROFL. Now it is like a horrible mad lib in the midst of my novel. I think I just need sleep. I need to put the pen away, and come back to it tomorrow.

nerds · Oct 14, 2007

WittyandorIronic said:
I called my male MC by his title and name. See....on paper it was a very dashing and impressive name. Baron Damien Ware. Looks great, huh? Out loud?? Try it. Say it out loud. Say BARON WARE. O-M-F-G. You have to be kidding me.
Bare-and-wear? Shoot me now. Bareing Damiens Wares???

Sweet Cheeses, your whole post just collapsed me.

I'm sorry you're having to change so much stuff, but look on the bright side - it hasn't made any rounds yet out there in Agentland, right? I hope?

Thanks for the best laugh I've had in awhile. And have a cookie. :e2cookie:

Eyan Carrington · Oct 15, 2007

benbradley said:
Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose panda hippo gnu deer.

That's great. I know what to write in my Christmas cards this year!

wyntermoon · Oct 15, 2007

Well you did say it's a romance.

Eh, it could be worse. He could be Baron Stare. :Wha:

Rich · Oct 15, 2007

I don't read my stuff aloud--even poetry.

KTC · Oct 15, 2007

you should, rich.

ooh! Maybe rich will be mean to me now!!!

kristie911 · Oct 15, 2007

I don't read stuff outloud either. Just left over fears from beginning my elementary school years as a stutterer. Hell, it was months before I could bring myself to read to my son. I don't stutter at all anymore, ever. But that doesn't mean scars don't run deep.

BTW...LOVE Baron Ware. Cracked me up! :roll:

Rich · Oct 15, 2007

KTC said:
you should, rich.

ooh! Maybe rich will be mean to me now!!!

Maybe I should, but my stuff gets published anyway. Could be that I subconsciously read aloud.

I've yet to be mean to you, KTC?

I'm slipping.

KTC · Oct 15, 2007

Rich said:
Maybe I should, but my stuff gets published anyway. Could be that I subconsciously read aloud.

I've yet to be mean to you, KTC?

I'm slipping.

I've tried everything, rich. It hurts. It really does.

Shwebb · Oct 15, 2007

I've never actually tried to read my stuff out loud. Maybe I should give it a try.

Kevin, Rich must love you an awful lot. I always consider it a compliment when Rich turns his Brooklyn-tinged wit towards me.

In my cube-dwelling days, I had a framed sign in my office that said simply:

Water

Door

Kyam

Folks stopping by would read it aloud and wonder--including my boss. I'd just nod and smile and agree.

WittyandorIronic · Oct 15, 2007

lol schweb! that is awesome. I am totally stealing that one.
And no...It is no where close to agent land. I am unpublished, so far I just torture my family and friends.
Yeah, I feel much better about this, after picturing it as a cute anecdote I can tell in some interview years from now.
They'll say, "Wow...you have finally sold more books than Nora Roberts. You have just won the Nobel Prize for literature for your romance novel that brought so many warm fuzzies to so many readers, it stopped wars. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?"
My response will be, "Yes, read everything out loud. I started this book once, and the character's name was...."

I will admit, it is more humorous now that I am done changing his name. lol.

WittyandorIronic · Oct 15, 2007

heh....I just noticed that, apparently, selling more books than Nora Roberts is more important to me than winning the Nobel Prize. lol. Go figure.

Azraelsbane · Oct 15, 2007

WittyandorIronic said:
heh....I just noticed that, apparently, selling more books than Nora Roberts is more important to me than winning the Nobel Prize. lol. Go figure.

Basically I just want to see something of mine on a B&N shelf. Being a bestseller would be nice of course (not gonna lie), but I'm not going in expecting to make a living as a writer. I just want to go into a store, pick up my book and rifle through it for that new book smell.

Also, I'm with you on selling more books than Nora vs. Nobel Prize. Nobel prize is only 1.5mil, and Nora's made a heck of a lot more than that off her books.

GeorgieB · Oct 15, 2007

I read my stuff out loud, sorta. What I actually do is let the computer do it. There are a bunch (some free) of text-to-speech programs available that will output to your computer speaker everything you've written. To make it private, use headphones.

I read along with the computer, blue pen in hand, editing along. I was surprised at the number of errors (to/too, alright/allright/all right, affect/effect...etc) that I found doing it this way.

Some of the programs allow you to slow down the pace, change the sex of the speaker...some even allow you to assign voices to different characters.

A techy solution, but it works.

WittyandorIronic · Oct 15, 2007

oooh. not bad GeorgieB. I might have to try one of those programs when I move into editing.

RickN · Oct 15, 2007

GeorgieB said:
I read my stuff out loud, sorta. What I actually do is let the computer do it. There are a bunch (some free) of text-to-speech programs available that will output to your computer speaker everything you've written. To make it private, use headphones.

I read along with the computer, blue pen in hand, editing along. I was surprised at the number of errors (to/too, alright/allright/all right, affect/effect...etc) that I found doing it this way.

Some of the programs allow you to slow down the pace, change the sex of the speaker...some even allow you to assign voices to different characters.

A techy solution, but it works.

One of my buddies swears by this method. He uses MS Word text-to-speech and purchased some additional voices for variety.

When he was working on a script, he used Final Draft, iirc. He said it could assign a different voice to each character, so the dialogue sounded like dialogue. Never used it myself, so second-hand info here.

I read aloud from the paper copy I print for editing. And pace while I do so. Lots of pacing.

auntybug · Oct 15, 2007

benbradley said:
Want to really amuse your hubby... just say these two sentences loud enough for him to hear (may not be appropriate for young children to hear):

I yam we tar did.
I yam sofa king we tar did.

Surely there's some word for this sort of thing (seemingly random words that when said together sound like other words) but I can't recall it if it exists. As another example (this one G rated, suitable for immature people of all ages!), there's this seasonal greeting made up almost exclusively of animal names:

Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose panda hippo gnu deer.

Off to read all my names out loud.

This reminded me of a band I saw a poster for. Took me a while to get it

"Sofa Kingdom"

Why it is important to read things out loud

WittyandorIronic

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

WittyandorIronic

nerds

of all the gin joints

Eyan Carrington

wyntermoon

Rich

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

kristie911

Happy to be here

Rich

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Shwebb

She's the creepy-looking dude

WittyandorIronic

WittyandorIronic

Azraelsbane

Agony is defeat

GeorgieB

Almost a wannabe writer

WittyandorIronic

RickN

auntybug

teh other evil broad